Celerra [EOL] vs Dell PowerScale comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Celerra [EOL] and Dell PowerScale are both solutions in the NAS category. Additionally, 100% of Celerra [EOL] users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Dell PowerScale users who would recommend it.

Celerra [EOL]

Read 1 Celerra [EOL] review

100% willing to recommend

Dell PowerScale

Read 107 Dell PowerScale reviews

17,998 Views
9,899 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Celerra [EOL]

Dell PowerScale

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Celerra [EOL] and Dell PowerScale based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, CTERA and others in NAS.

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Buyer's Guide

NAS

September 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Celerra [EOL]

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Dell PowerScale

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

107

Ranking in other categories

NAS (1st), File and Object Storage (1st)

Featured Reviews

it_user5157

Sr System Engineer at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees

Highly scalable and reliable SAN with fiber channel connectivity but bulky in size and consumes a lot of power

Hot spare disk system to take over the full workload in the event of a failure, at the same performance and service levels. The data is clustered over multiple disks so data read/write access time is very low. Fiber channel connectivity option for high speed data transfer. Single point of management/control. Customized version of Linux OS hence much higher security.

Read full review

RahulSharma8

Storage Platform Engineer at Expedia Group

Unified file sharing has simplified multi-tenant access and has delivered seamless data replication

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) includes its replication features; when we decommissioned our old Isilon cluster, we migrated all of the data to a new cluster, and it was pretty seamless. All you have to do is create the certificates and make those certificates available to the target cluster, then initiate a few jobs. The inter-cluster replication feature, called SyncIQ, allows you to set up all of the jobs and move your data entirely, either timely or all at once. Another suitable feature is the ability to back up your directories; you can take snapshots for all of your directories, and in fact, I believe you can take around a thousand snapshots for a single directory. The inter-replication, geo-replication is one feature. Dell provides a variety class of hardware suitable for your workloads, meaning if your data is just lab and not critical, you don't have to spend much on the hardware; conversely, if your data is mission-critical, you can buy a high-performance node from Dell. Additionally, you can span Dell PowerScale (Isilon) cluster to a large number of nodes, and code upgrades are pretty smooth because all protocols will be upgraded under a single piece of code. Since it provides a single file system that spans across the nodes, you don't have to worry about that directory structure being separately created on individual nodes, making it a fitting solution for a data lake solution because you can access the same data from multiple protocols.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"At last we bought this Celerra NS 40, with 17 TB of space which is giving superb performance."

"The best features Dell PowerScale offers are the soft elements, such as supportability, resilience, after-sales services, the brand, and its reliability."

"Certainly, we have seen return on investment and peace of mind, especially with our two clusters that are linked together, where one is a disaster recovery solution for the other."

"Operational efficiency with Dell PowerScale is relatively easy to operate."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) definitely deserves ten out of ten for scalability."

"Our main goal is to do disaster recovery with whatever solution we use and Isilon makes it pretty simple to replicate those workloads over to our secondary data center."

"The ease of use of this solution has been the most valuable aspect as well as the SyncIQ and snapshot features."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) has powerful security, which makes it a very reliable storage solution for our content, and also the support and observability of our system; the call home feature is fantastic because when it presents an issue, Dell automatically opens a ticket regarding any warnings or alerts, allowing us to have a complete view of our system's health."

"The features that I have mentioned improve my company through the reliability of the storage; it is always available, and it works, which is the important thing."

More Dell PowerScale pros

Cons

"Very bulky and heavy in weight."

"Improvements could be made to reduce the costs and the high level of knowledge needed to maintain and use them. We had old hard drives with moving parts in Dell PowerScale, and due to this, we must switch to a more efficient environment with all-flash."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is a little bit pricey, and its pricing could be improved."

"My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Dell PowerScale has been expensive."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is a bit expensive compared to other products."

"There aren't many templates still coming out for it. They need to provide templates so we can copy and paste what we've done in the past to future, new things."

"The downside of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is that if we are replacing a drive, sometimes in the worst-case scenarios, some of the other drives will also go to the SmartFail state."

"I see a disadvantage if I cannot integrate Dell PowerScale with the public cloud, as I have not used this feature before."

"I would make Dell PowerScale (Isilon) better by improving SmartSync in the graphical user interface. Currently, everything has to be done through the command line, and I prefer having a graphical interface."

More Dell PowerScale cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Our company finds the pricing high, but it decreases over time."

"The pricing is expensive, but I think it's a fair value because it does manage itself. It definitely is much simpler than any of the other scale-out storage platforms that we've looked at in the past."

"Dealing with the product costs and licensing areas is getting easier since Dell is simplifying the licensing process and licensing packages offered to users."

"The pricing for this solution is reasonable."

"We paid an additional fee to have Dell's ProDeploy Plus team implement it."

"I always want things to be less expensive. However, I would say the pricing is fair. Their costs are in alignment with their competitors. It is a good value for the money."

"The price of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is reasonable."

"Dell PowerScale is expensive on the start-up side but we can recoup those costs quickly by not having to reapply the savings to other equipment."

More Dell PowerScale pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	30
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	65

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

The on-premises solution with Dell PowerScale, when we buy directly from Dell, is economical. We have done some level of comparison. Although in the current markets we have seen the price differenc...

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What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

There should be some enhancement where Dell PowerScale can have block level functionality or block storage kind of functionality. Although there is a different product line from Dell, if there is s...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

We use Dell PowerScale for our object scale and different kinds of storage, including both object storage and file storage.I am part of the solution architect team, which is a techno-commercial rol...

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Celerra [EOL]

Compared 24% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs Celerra [EOL]

Compared 22% of the time

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NetApp FAS Series vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 16% of the time

Everpure FlashBlade vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 8% of the time

Qumulo vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 5% of the time

VAST Data vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 3% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 3% of the time

More Dell PowerScale Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

NAS

September 2026

Download Celerra [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale

September 2026

Download Dell PowerScale product report

Also Known As

Celerra

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon

Overview

Each Celerra unified product is a dedicated network server optimized for file and block access, delivering high-end features in a scalable, easy-to-use package. For the ultimate in scalability, the Celerra unified storage platforms leverage both the innovative best-in-class EMC Fibre Channel RAID storage and deliver industry-leading EMC Celerra availability, performance, and ease of management. Celerra unified storage systems deliver a single-box block and file solution offering a centralized point of management for distributed environments.

Dell Technologies

Dell PowerScale leads in unstructured data management with unified file and object storage, massive scalability, security, and cloud adaptability, enhancing AI, analytics, and enterprise applications with exceptional performance and resilience.

Dell PowerScale Isilon provides a comprehensive platform for unstructured data, excelling in scalability, management, and performance. With features like single-pane management, SyncIQ, and SmartQuotas, it handles large datasets with flexibility and robust security. Its multi-protocol support and seamless expansion improve operational efficiency. While it offers strong data protection, enhancements in cloud integration, cybersecurity, and performance are sought. Users note potential for cost reductions and streamlined configurations and mention desired improvements in object storage handling and NFS support.

What are the key features of Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Single-pane management: Simplifies data control and monitoring through a unified interface.
SyncIQ: Ensures efficient data replication for business continuity.
SmartQuotas: Provides intelligent quota management for optimized storage allocation.
Multi-protocol support: Facilitates cross-platform data access and integration.
Seamless storage expansion: Allows effortless scaling to accommodate growing data needs.

What benefits should users consider when reviewing Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Operational efficiency: Reduces workload with easy management and automation.
Enhanced security: Offers comprehensive data protection and recovery options.
Scalability: Supports large-scale data storage with flexible growth capabilities.
Performance: Delivers high-speed data processing for demanding applications.
Integration flexibility: Adapts to on-prem and hybrid cloud environments for diverse deployment needs.

Organizations across industries utilize Dell PowerScale Isilon for large-scale unstructured storage, supporting applications like video archiving, genomic data storage, and high-resolution imaging. Educational institutions, research centers, and media enterprises rely on its scaled-out storage capabilities, providing centralized, secure storage for diverse applications in hybrid, cloud, and on-prem environments.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

Wentworth-Douglas Hospital, Kindred Healthcare, Cosentry, Sumitomo Life Insurance Company, Shriners, BZWBK

OMRF, University of Utah, Translational Genetics Research Institute, Arcis, Geofizyka Torumn, Cyprus E&P Corporation, Colburn School, Columbia Sportswear, Harvard Medical School, University of Michigan, National Library of France,

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, CTERA and others in NAS. Updated: September 2026.

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